Plurality in Gubernatorial Elections

December 23, 2015

From 1946-2015, 119 of the 1,027 gubernatorial elections nationwide - or 11.6 % - were won with less than 50 percent of the vote. No general election was won with less than 35 percent of the vote. The following is the list of every general election over that span won with less than a majority of votes cast, with the state, year, elected winner and winning percentage.

*Denotes an election where the candidate with a plurality was chosen by the state legislature, due to state laws that require a majority win.

**In 1966, Georgia's state legislature, given the power to choose the governor when no candidate won a majority, selected the gubernatorial candidate with the second most votes.

NOTE: Some states have used a blanket primary system for the governor's race, which is designed to ensure a majority win. Unless one candidate takes more than 50% of the vote in the first round, the top two candidates who receive the most votes advance to a runoff. Louisiana has used this system since 1977, though in 1987, gubernatorial candidate Edwin Edwards withdrew after winning the right to a runoff against Buddy Roemer. With only one candidate in the runoff, the state did not hold a second round of voting, and Roemer became governor without winning a majority of the vote.